HOOVER, Alabama - There’s no truth to the rumor. Gus Malzahn didn't open his first big-room press conference at SEC Media Days with a prayer.

He did say right at the start that he was “blessed,” and you could see eyebrows raising and eyeballs rolling all over the room.

Did Auburn really change head coaches or is this Gene Chizik 2.0?

And then Malzahn started rolling, talking in his hurry-up no-huddle style, offering confident answers and showing a command of the podium he often saves for behind closed doors and Chizik usually demonstrated only in a crisis.

It’s true that there are some common threads between the current Auburn coach and his old boss. Like Chizik, Malzahn does wear his faith on his sleeve, a characteristic they both share with Auburn AD Jay Jacobs.

Like Chizik, Malzahn came to Auburn as a coordinator, enjoyed success that included an undefeated season, left and became a head coach. They each returned to Auburn, in no small part, because familiarity doesn’t breed contempt when the school goes looking for a new head football coach.

It provides an inside track to the big corner office.

And that’s where the Malzahn-Chizik parallels hit the wall. The old colleagues may still be friends, but they’re not clones.

Chizik came up as a defensive assistant. When he became Auburn’s head coach, he hired a defensive coordinator with a very different philosophy, and the contrast of Chizik and Ted Roof never worked.

By the time Brian VanGorder got there a year ago, he never had a chance.

Malzahn came up on the offensive side of the ball and earned a reputation as a guru/genius at his specialty, a status Chizik never enjoyed, even during back-to-back undefeated seasons at Auburn in 2004 and Texas in 2005.

When he became Auburn’s head coach, Malzahn quickly hired an offensive coordinator who’d played and coached for him before. It’s not a stretch to call Rhett Lashlee his protege. There will be no damaging philosophical differences between them.

Philosophy aside, Auburn never really established a personality under Chizik. The Tigers weren’t known for defense, at least not good defense, despite his past success as a coordinator. They were kinda sorta known for offense, at least in 2009 and 2010, but Malzahn got the credit there.

For a while, Chizik’s teams won a lot of close games, which is a nice quality to have, but they proceeded to stop playing close games against quality opponents.

Hence, the coaching change.

No one seemed to expect much from the allegedly mild-mannered Malzahn during his inaugural address at SEC Media Days, and he hurdled that low bar with ease. His first impression didn’t call to mind Steve Spurrier, but no one flashed back to Mike Shula, either.

Malzahn scored the most points when he took on Nick Saban, Bret Bielema and every other coach who’s expressed concern that the hurry-up no-huddle offense might jeopardize player safety.

“When I first heard that, I thought it was a joke,” Malzahn said.

Hello. Shot fired. So the professor really does pack a punch.

When some people first heard that Auburn had hired Chizik, they waited for the punch line. It came last season.

Anyone out there still thinking that Auburn made the same mistake twice with Malzahn? You might want to think again.